Lenoir County’s Board of Education and Board of Commissioners will each have two new faces beginning next week, as well as new chairmen and solid Democratic voting majorities. New and re-elected members of both boards will be sworn in Monday.

The seven-member Board of Commissioners had a 4-3 majority of Democrats to Republicans for two years in the wake of the 2010 elections, but with Democrat Craig Hill’s victory over incumbent District 3 Republican Tommy Pharo, the Democrats have a commanding 5-2 lead.

George Graham, a Democrat, was elected to N.C. House District 12 this year after serving on the Board of Commissioners for 30 years. He was also the chairman.

Jimmy Cochran, chairman of the Lenoir County Democratic Party, said the members of the party’s executive committee will meet this week and put forth a nominee for Graham’s seat — the commissioners have the final say, though.

“I personally don’t think it’s going to make any difference in the function of the board,” veteran Commissioner Reuben Davis said of the changes.

Davis, an at-large Democrat, won re-election to a second term, along with fellow at-large Democrat Linda Rouse Sutton. Davis also served as a commissioner from 1974 to 1982.

“There no question in my mind that all of us are on the same page, of doing everything we can not to have a property tax increase,” he said.

County officials have projected the next one to two years will be very tight financially, and the commissioners will have to determine how they will fill a hole of several million dollars in the budget.

Davis said it will take some time for the revenues from new industries to kick in.

“We want to get over the hump, and I think I can speak for all of us on that,” he said. “I think we’ll all be on the same page.”

Davis, Sutton, Hill and Commissioner Jackie Brown, a Democrat who ran unopposed for her District 4 seat, will be sworn in when the commissioners meet Monday.

Board of Education

Democrat Jon Sargeant will take over the District 3 seat of board Chairwoman Rita Hodges, a Democrat who was elected in 2008 and decided not to run for a second term.

Democrat Merwyn K. Smith will fill the at-large seat of Democrat Billy Davis, who was also elected in 2008 and was defeated in the May primary.

Smith will join fellow Democrat Bruce Hill in the at-large seats. Hill was elected to his third four-year term.

Hill expected there would be less of a “personal agenda” among school board members going into next year.

The board has been through upheavals in recent years, with controversy over redistricting, changes to the school dress code and the removal of Terry Cline as superintendent.

“I think this board is going to be trying to work together,” Hill said. “All that’s happened is water under the bridge so what we need to do is work together for our kids our schools and our community.”

Hill, Sargeant, Smith, along with C.L. Braxton of District 5 and Garland Nobles Jr. of District 4 — Nobles ran for re-election unopposed this year — make up the five-member Democratic majority on the school board, which has not changed as a result of this year’s election.

Vice Chairman Giles Stroud, a Republican, was elected in 2010. He was elected to District 1, but has since been drawn out of it after the county redrew its voting district lines.

Stroud ran at large this year, but came in third out of four candidates. He will serve out the remainder of his term representing District 1.

“This is a situation where there should not be any politics involved,” Stroud said. “I just happen to be a Republican, I just happened to run as a Republican and have very conservative values, but the bottom line is the children.”

His fellow Republican is David Fillippeli, who is in the middle of his third term and said he was “looking forward” to working with the new board members.

“I don’t think in the 10 years that I’ve been on the board that anyone has voted along party lines, on anything that I can recall,” he said. “I think the biggest concern of the new board is going to be how we continue to make do with less, because the General Assembly has cut us pretty deeply in the past couple of years and I’m worried that more (budget) cuts are coming.”

Hill, Nobles Sargeant and Smith will be sworn in when the school board meets Monday.

Party politics

Cochran, the Lenoir County Democratic Party chairman, expected all members of the boards would work for the best interests of the school system and the county regardless of party affiliation.

“I think sometimes that the Republicans want to take it in a different direction, but other than that I think we all want to do well by the children in the school system,” he said.

Jeff Nice, chairman of the Lenoir County GOP, stated his views succinctly.

“I hope that the voters get what they were looking for when they went to the polls”

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or David.Anderson@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at DavidFreePress.